Candy Will Die
by Red Stockings
Summary: Candy's dreams turn to nightmares, as she tries to outrun what fate has planned for her. "I told you I'd kill you. If I can't get you when you're awake, then I'll get you whilst you sleep!" Candy Carrion
1. Chapter 1

**Candy Will Die**

**Author's Note**: Carrion is thinking positive today…

**Warning**: This fic has lots of blood, violence, hints to suicide, and general nastiness… enjoy.

The girl was running, but she couldn't get far. Wherever she turned she seemed to get no further away from the man following her. Her legs were straining to move under her trousers, and her feet were pounding in her trainers on the ever-changing floor. One moment she was running on marble tiles, the next she was skidding on dusty pebbles.

She was outside the tower, running in the moonlight and the cold air of Midnight. Her breath, short and fast, painful in the chill, came from her mouth like bursts of white smoke. The warm air that had been expelled from her lungs filled the gloom around her, and finally dispersed; but only after it had brushed across Christopher Carrion's face.

Candy's legs burned, but it was worth it to gain precious seconds of a lead in front of Carrion. But there was no luck smiling on Candy that day, as just as she had the faintest spark of hope that she might just escape, she tripped over the fallen branches of a dead tree.

Falling onto her knees, Candy scraped her palms over the hard floor until she stopped her forward motion. Crying out in pain and the shock, she pushed herself up just in time to see Carrion barely two meters away. Staggering to her feet and back into her clumsy run, Candy rubbed her raw hands on her top, leaving bloody patches on her stomach.

Christopher Carrion stopped for the briefest of moments to look at the spot where the girl had fallen. His eyes looked at the disturbed gravel, and the little pale stones that were now tinged red with her blood.

He crushed them under his boot.

"I like the colour of your blood girl!" he shouted after her, in an echoing voice that seemed to bounce off of everything and only settled in Candy's ears.

Candy's eyes were filled with blinding tears. She didn't know where she was going, and she knew deep down within herself that she wasn't going to escape now. Her chest was afire, her legs cramping, she was slowing down, and her fate was closing in on her faster than she could run.

"Oh God," she cried as she ran. "Oh God, I'm going to die. He's going to kill me!"

But there was no God there to save her, only the fog that seemed to be stirring up from the plants around her, creating a haze that she was running into. It became more and more thick until she could no longer see, and her enthusiasm for running was dashed by the thought of running into a tree.

However, stopping was the last thing she should have done, for when she stopped, she didn't move again. Something was climbing up her leg, but in the fog she couldn't see what it was. It felt like a plant tendril, or a snake, but whatever it was it was strong and unforgiving.

Candy looked around wildly. Where was Carrion? He had been right on her heels. Had the plant got him too?

"Candy!" someone called her in the mist.

She snapped her head to the left, it had sounded like Malingo. But that was impossible. It must be a trick of Carrion's. Yet she could help but lean towards where the voice had come from, in the tiniest hope that Malingo was here to save her.

"Malingo?" she called.

"No, I'm not your friend."

Bang, Candy was pushed backwards. She felt as if he's just run smack into her, as all her front hurt with the force of the push. Suddenly Candy realised she was still falling, it seemed she was falling forever, falling and falling into the dark.

With her heart pounding, and her hands scrabbling in the air, searching desperately for something to cling to, Candy stopped screaming and as a thought occurred to her. It was impossible for her to be falling this far down to the ground she had just walked over moments before, even in the Abarat that was strange. She had no memory of why she was running in the first place either, or how she had gotten to this place. It was all so odd that there was only one answer that made any sense; it must all be a dream.

As soon as she began to relax, knowing for sure she'd never reach the bottom of this fall, that she'd wake up at any moment, Candy crashed into a pool of icy water. The force of hitting the surface almost knocked her unconscious, but she managed to resist the black swarming dots that threatened to take her away. Gasping for air and receiving a mouthful of water instead was enough to make Candy kick for the surface.

'_Alright Candy,'_ she thought '_wake up now, its gone far enough…'_

She was feeling dizzy, the lack of oxygen in her blood making her drowsy, she wanted to stop moving, but she hadn't reached the surface yet. Knowing any moment she would wake, Candy only half-heartedly broke the surface, but dream or not, her lungs welcomed the air with a gasp and splutter of relief.

Treading water and moving her arms around on the surface to stay afloat, Candy noticed someone standing on the water's edge. Christopher Carrion watched Candy drowning from the riverbank; in his right hand he held a dagger, rusty from neglect. He was going to plunge that dagger into Candy's chest and watch her blood pour out onto the floor.

He waited patiently as Candy fought the water, then she looked at him.

"I thought you were going to drown, I'm so glad you didn't," he said.

He stretched out his left arm and beckoned her with his finger.

"Come closer girl!"

Candy thrashed the water to keep her distance, but it wouldn't listen to her, it was obeying Carrion, bringing her closer every second. Candy spotted the dagger and her heart turned cold with fear, she wished she really had drowned in the water.

"No, please. It's just a dream, it has to be, he's dead!" Candy told herself, speaking aloud this time to assure herself, but still she didn't wake up.

Carrion waited, the trees around him taking on an eerie red glow in anticipation of the evil about to be preformed.

Candy reached the edge and Carrion snapped down to grab her with a harsh hand tangled in her hair. Dragging her out of the water, he stood over her dagger in hand.

"Candy wake up," Candy tried again.

"Candy wake up," Carrion mimicked. "What are you going to wake up to Candy? Are you going to go back to that school? Sit in that classroom, your only worry being whether the teacher is going to call in that homework you haven't done? You know you cannot go back. You gave yourself to me when you allowed yourself to be caught, and now I've had enough of you!"

"It's just a dream," Candy sobbed.

"It's all been a dream girl, and I want you out of mine."

Candy watched him raise the knife. She wasn't going to wake up. She was going to feel that pointy edge go through her skin and explode all of the life out of her in a moment of agonising pain.

"No!" she screamed, raising her hands to try and stop him. "Please, I don't want to die!"

Carrion stopped, regarded her frightened face for a moment and then smiled. Candy looked at his twisted smile and knew there was not one scrap of pity for her in him.

"I am going to kill you every time you close your eyes. Every time you sleep I'll be there, waiting, until you're afraid to close your eyes. I'll kill you in your dreams until you cannot bare to live a moment longer, and you take this blade to your own veins."

Candy cried a long cry of pain, she was frightened to her very soul, and she hated him more than she ever did before.

"I'll take it to yours!" she screamed hysterically.

Carrion nodded as if that was the answer he was expecting.

"I'm on Hobarookus, if you can find me, come and kill me Candy."

Candy blinked, she was about to try and plead again, but it was too late. The blade was slicing through the air, and before she could even draw her last breath, it had plundered through her left ribs and into the softness of her lung.

Eyes wide, Candy choked on the blood that was filling up her mouth and spilling over her lips.

"Beautiful," Carrion whispered.

Candy watched him kneel down beside her, her vision going cloudy. He was holding his hands up to his eyes, both hands covered in her blood.

"And I have the rest of your dreams to see it, again, and again…"

Candy closed her eyes, he could do what he wanted with her now, it was all over, and she was drifting away. Floating on something soft and smooth, the sun shining on her face. The sun, she thought, the sun was shining, and she wasn't dead after all!

"Da!" someone was shouting. "Da! There's a girl! Over there with all the fishes!"

"Well, bring her in son," an older voice answered.

Candy felt herself being dragged along by something and then lifted out of what she assumed was water and into some sort of vessel.

"Poor lass, shipwrecked were you? We've seen many souls shipwrecked today, most id never welcome abroad, strange looking folk, but you, you're strange, but a whole different kettle of fish."

Candy coughed up water, glad that someone was speaking to her, calling her back into the land of the living.

"Where am I?" Candy asked when she could finally sit up and look around.

"On my boat, me and my son are fishing these waters…"

"I'm in the Abarat?" Candy asked.

The man laughed.

"Of course! Where else would you be? Now, where do you live? Or maybe more appropriately…where can we take you?"

Candy sat in silence for a moment, she felt sore on her left side, and when she rubbed her left ribs she knew where she wanted to go. She looked up at the man and his son, she was ready to give her answer; she had never been more ready in all her life.

**End**

**Author's Note: **I'm in a lot of pain, pain is all I can think about, pain pain pain….(I had my wisdom teeth pulled out) therefore, makes sense that I should inflict my pain upon some other poor soul, aka Candy.

Anyway, what'd you think?


	2. Chapter 2

**Candy Will Die **

**Part Two **

**A/N:** Don't know why, but I just felt like updating another chapter to this. Thanks for all the reviews for the first.

* * *

Candy stared down at her bare legs, turning golden in the sun, half buried in the sand. Her trousers she had rolled up above her knee to cool herself down. She had been travelling over the island of _Nully_, and even though the hour was early, the sun had already risen and was promising another hot and dry day. In the blue sky overhead, nothing marred it's perfect colour but an occasional flock of birds migrating back and forth from hour to hour. It was almost enough to make Candy smile, but she was tired, and aching. She doubted very much that anything on this odd island, filled with many marvellous treasures, would make her forget.

She had been travelling non-stop since her last dream, afraid to linger in any one place, determined to travel as far as possible before she was forced to close her eyes once more. She knew that he would be waiting for her; she could almost feel eyes upon her now, just waiting until she was forced to surrender. Candy knew it wouldn't be long; she had already been forced to stop here, her legs protesting against any further steps. And having rested, it was harder to push herself to her feet and continue.

Her mind began to scream two different arguments. Half of her was already surrendering, knowing that physical exhaustion would win out in the end, and it was fruitless to continue to fight. He might not even come to her this time, it could have been just a dream; a figment of an over strained imagination. But the rest of her forced her eyes to stay open. Her frightened heart told her not to give in, that he was there in the darkness, waiting, always with her, but always just out of sight. Keep going it said, she knew she wasn't ready to see his face just yet, no matter how hard her stinging muscles complained.

Walking along the sand, the sun beat down on the back of her exposed neck, and onto the backs of her calves. But Candy didn't notice, all her attention was focused on the next bend of the bay, and the small hut of a house she was slowly approaching. If she were lucky it would contain people that could help and feed her. With every step, her resolve to stay awake faltered. Suddenly she was desperate to sleep, even if it meant seeing him again.

The house was empty, dashing all of Candy's hopes for a good meal. The money in her pocket, enough to get her around the Abarat for a while, would not help her here. Looking around it was clear that the house had been left empty for a while, as there was thin layer of dust upon everything. In what passed for the kitchen Candy looked through the cupboards, and found cans of questionable content. Having no choice but to eat what had been abandoned along with the house, she took the nearest one. Concerned that perhaps the content was intended for the owners pet, Candy ate without pausing to taste and then searched for a place to sleep.

As her eyes closed, she felt herself drifting on the brink of consciousness. She felt as if she was being suspended between dreams and oblivion, waiting for one to win over the other. Finally she opened her eyes, but she did not see the same scene before her as had been there before. Now she was lying in a soft bed, in a room filled with dark mahogany furniture. Sitting up she looked around her fervently. He wasn't here, but that didn't answer any questions as to why her dreams had chosen this place.

Swinging her legs out of the large bed, she noticed that she was wearing a long white nightgown with pearls on the sleeves and collar. Her feet were bare, and the floor was cold beneath them. She didn't know what she was going to do, but as if her subconscious had answered her, a door creaked open across the room. She waited with baited breath, wondering what was going to come through it, but nothing did. Slowly she edged forwards, and pulled it open further.

"Hello?" she called.

There was silence.

Standing in the hallway, she hugged her arms around her body and held tightly. She walked forwards slowly along the wooden floor, to where a door stood ajar with a flicker of light behind it. She pushed it open with a shaking hand.

Her breath caught. Christopher Carrion was sat in a chair by the fireside, one foot upon a stool, the other resting on the floor. In his hand he held a crystal glass filled with a deep red liquid. Candy's eyes swept over him, taking in the heavy tread of his boots, to the flicker of fire in his eyes. His staring eyes were piercing, and Candy found herself frozen in panic.

"Would you like this back?" he asked.

Candy looked at the glass he was offering her. It wasn't wine. She stepped backwards but encountered nothing but the wall. The door had disappeared. She was trapped. It wasn't wine. But blood. Her blood. Candy shook her head.

"Why did you come here Candy?"

She shook her head again; no words would come to her. She hadn't come here, not by choice. She didn't even know where she was, only that she was trapped.

"I didn't," she whispered. "I didn't come here."

"I didn't call you here."

He stood and Candy flattened herself against the wall. She tried desperately to remind herself that she was dreaming, but the heart of the fire, and her fear were all to real. He walked towards her slowly, his hand with the glass turning, tipping the content on the floor, leaving a trail of red droplets in his wake. Candy felt her chest rising and falling without her control. He was so close that she could hear his breathing also.

Candy screamed as he threw the glass across the room, smashing into the wall, shattering into tiny places. She ducked out of his grasp and fell to the ground in order to crawl away.

"Why do you torment me?" he asked, his voice desperate and pleading. "Why must you come to me? Do I not suffer enough?"

Candy clasped her hands over her ears to block him out. His words shot through her heart like shards of ice, and the pain was fierce and biting. Why were they connected together in pain and fear, driving each other into despair and darkness?

The room turned dark, as if responding to Candy's thoughts, making her feel as if she was crawling through a tunnel. Something was following her, but it was not moving like she was, it was rushing across the ground, like a piece of silk being dragged across marble. Slowly it wrapped itself around her ankle and began to pull against her momentum, dragging her backwards.

"No, let me go. I don't want to go back! Please!"

But it was unsympathetic to her screams, dragging her back towards the light. Kicking against her invisible foe, Candy landed back in the doorless room, the light from the fire stinging her eyes. Christopher Carrion's image flickered in and out of her dream, one second standing before her, the next sitting in the chair. Only there was something wrong with each vision, as if the picture was confused. Candy struggled to her feet.

The she saw the dagger in his chest. Blood pouring to the ground, creeping closer and closer to her. Her speechless mouth opened in a soundless scream. What was happening? His eyes were wide and pleading, standing before her, shock across his face. He tried to pull the knife from his chest, and with it Candy saw the pain the movement caused him. He fell back into the chair.

Candy waded through the blood, staining her bare feet, and the bottom of her dress. She pushed his hands away from the knife.

"Don't do that, stop it, you'll make it worse," she said, holding him back from disturbing the wound.

His eyes found hers.

"Thank you Candy."

She let go as his eyes dulled and then closed. She stepped back, there was blood on her hands.

"I didn't do this!" she whispered. "I didn't do this!" she said again only louder. "I won't do it!" she screamed.

Suddenly a vision of herself, dagger in hand looming over him, plunging the blade into his chest, overtook her. Falling to her knees she retched and felt her tears falling, collapsing onto the blood soaked floor, she sobbed. She had known how it must end, they could not both live, one would die at the end of a blade, but fate had not yet decided who it should be.

Candy shuddered. She couldn't do it. She couldn't kill him, and watch the life drain from his eyes. She wouldn't take up a blade, not even to save her own life.

She sat up in a panic, sweat dripping down her back. She was where she had closed her eyes, the wooden hut on the beach. Lying down again she knew that she would never be free until she found him. If fate had not yet decided who was to live, then maybe there was still a way to change its mind against it all.


End file.
